Dynamic Regulation of photosynthEsis in light-Acclimated organisMs

Introduction

Cultivation of plants consumes huge resources of water for irrigation and energy for lighting. Introducing disruptive technologies is key to improve plants and enable their parsimonious cultivation.

Project Overview

DREAM overtakes these challenges by gathering an interdisciplinary consortium sharing a same radical vision: to measure and exploit the dynamics of photosynthesis regulation under natural-like light conditions for selective sensing, monitoring the plant state, and enhancing lighting efficiency in controlled environments.

Methodology

We develop ground-breaking instruments and acquisition protocols unraveling unprecedented kinetic data from microalgae and plants (including tomato as a crop species) by using:

• Novel periodically modulated or randomly fluctuating illuminations
• Chlorophyll fluorescence
• Original luminescent nanosensors

These data are processed with comprehensive theoretical tools, including:

1. System identification
2. Dynamical systems
3. System control
4. Machine learning

This approach aims to build a powerful dynamical model which delivers categorizing fingerprints for highly selective sensing and tailored modulated illuminations for enhancing lighting efficiency.

Implementation

Finally, we implement a server with incremental learning from an open-source community to extend sensing to organisms and environmental conditions much beyond the ones used in our DREAM project.

Expected Outcomes

DREAM will expand knowledge on photosynthesis regulation and lead to major achievements:

• Categorizing plant states (sensing stresses, selecting improved plants)
• Improving controlled ecosystems (equipping lighting with sensing and decreasing its cost)
• Instrument design (targeting scientists and many more end-users)

Impact

DREAM will further improve innovation in key European industries active in the fields of scientific instruments, phenotyping, and plant production while increasing resource use efficiency. This will ultimately improve environmental quality and offer better and safer products to consumers.